Natashen'ka
by the frozen cherry
Summary: THE SEQUEL TO LENA - When Natasha is called in on one of her days off by Fury to do an interrogation she has to face an important part of her past, someone who was meant to be dead - what he tells her sets her off on a journey to rediscover how deeply the manipulations of the Red Room have affected her life. Set five years after the end of Lena.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi and welcome to one of the sequels to Lena!**

**I say sequels because I plan on writing this story, set 6 years after the end of Lena and another story called Sofia, which will contain drabbles and one shots about the time between Lena, the epilogue and then this story. I have lots of ideas for both stories, many which are inspired by the wonderful reviews I received in the last chapter of Lena.  
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**I hope this all makes sense! Hopefully, Sofia will detail things like Clint, Natasha and Lena becoming a family plus the arrival of Sofia and the featuring the rest of the Avengers, as well as other little stories which are referenced in this story. If you have anymore ideas, please let me know! These two stories should hopefully keep me nice and busy over my Summer Holidays!  
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**I hope you enjoy this chapter!  
**

**Cherry :)**

* * *

'Is the threat detained?' Director Fury asked as he strode into the control room, his black leather coat billowing out behind him.

'Yes sir' Agent Hill replied, standing up straight as she addressed her superior

'And has anyone interrogated him yet to find out why he nearly set a bomb off in the middle of Wall Street?'

'No sir'

'Why not? Where is Agent Luzin?'

'She's currently in the infirmary unconscious; she managed to fend off the threat longer than the other agents we sent to diffuse the situation but she was out by the time agents Barton and Rogers arrived with back up'

'Where are Rogers and Barton now?' he asked

'In their quarters' sir' his right hand woman replied 'you know that interrogation is not really their thing.'

'So the only thing we know about the threat is that he calls himself the Red Guardian'

'Yes Sir'

'You realise that I'm going to need answers and soon'

'Yes sir' Agent Hill responded, shutting the fold she was reading 'but she's not going to like it'

* * *

A ringing noise filled the car.

'This is Natasha Romanoff speaking' the red haired woman answered, speaking into her communicator, which was attached to her phone 'how may I help you?'

'Agent Romanoff we need you to come in' came the voice she least expected to hear.

'Director Fury, may I remind you that I'm currently on one of my days off work'

'It's urgent Agent'

'And I'm doing the school run' she replied, looking in her rear view mirror to check if Sofia was ok, strapped into her car seat as they drove across the sleepy town which they lived in to pick up her older sister from High School.

'I don't care if you are in an ER, I need you at headquarters agent' the Director replied angrily

'What's so important, is Clint ok?' she asked

'Agent Barton is fine, I need you to come in and interrogate a threat we captured today trying to blow up Wall Street'

'Can't Irina do it?' Natasha asked, not really wanting to go into work and knowing that her protégé, Irina, who she had rescued from the Black Widow program eight years ago, was perfectly capable and skilled enough to carry out an interrogation, after all she had learnt from the best.'

'We would ask Agent Luzin, but she is currently unconscious' the director of S.H.E.I.L.D replied

'How about Clint or Steve or even Hill?' Natasha asked, throwing out names of possible interrogators. She really did not want to go in on her day off, especially since she had to look after the girls.

'Mummy, I'm hungry' came Sofia's whining voice.

'There should be a bag of crisps next to you' Natasha answered, trying to keep her eyes on the road, whilst fishing behind her to find the packet of crisps to keep her daughter quiet.

'Mummy will Daddy be home for dinner?' Sofia asked, now munching on the crisps

'I don't know sweetheart' Natasha replied as she tried to listen to what Fury was telling her in her ear.

'Agent Romanoff, you know as well as I do that, Rogers is too nice, Barton too impatient and Hill not subtle enough, when it comes to conducting successful interrogations. You're the best and at the moment agent; I need the best, which means that you need to get your ass down here as soon as possible!'

'I'll have to bring Elena and Sofia in with me' she replied 'since you are not giving me any time to find someone to look after them'

'Fine, I will allow you to bring them with you' Fury stated, causing Natasha to raise her eyebrows at his concession. He had never allowed the girls onto S.H.E.I.L.D headquarters before, which consequently meant that her youngest daughter did not know what she and Clint actually did. To Sofia, and their neighbours of the sleepy town they resided in, she and Clint were just business people, who frequently went on business trips around the world. By Fury allowing her to bring her girls to Head quarters, showed Natasha that this was serious.

'Give me two hours' she said, looking down at her watch and doing some quick mental arithmetic in her head.

'Thank you Agent' Fury stated 'we'll get Dr Banner to analyse the threat's blood so we can work out what caused him to be so powerful whilst we wait for you to arrive'

Natasha sighed as Fury hung up. It was at times like these, when Fury called her up out of the blue demanding her presence, that she really considered just quitting the organisation. She knew that it was probably not an option, firstly, because she was not really qualified to do anything else and secondly, she knew that the Council would not be happy. Actually she hoped that the incredibly annoying Council knew that she was coming in on one of her designated days off, to help deal with a threat. She pulled up the car outside Elena's high school and waited for her daughter.

'Bonjour Maman' Elena announced as she bound into the car, plopping herself down on the back seat and stealing the last crisp from her younger sister's packet.

'Did you have a good day?' Natasha asked as she drove off quickly, back towards her and Clint's home, which was on the outskirts of the town.

'Mom, remember its French day today!' Elena exclaimed crossly

'Elena, I've been called in' Natasha replied seriously, cutting across her daughters protestations. When fourteen year old Elena had started High School a month ago, she had shown an aptitude for languages and had decided to try and speak, at least at home, in one language for an entire day. Natasha hadn't complained, because it gave her and Clint the chance to practise speaking in foreign languages outside of work. However right now the last thing Natasha wanted to be doing was making conversation in French. What she was actually doing was swearing under her breath in Russian, so Sofia did not hear her, as she wove her way home, through the traffic.

'What! But they can't do that!' Elena exclaimed

'According to Fury, it's an emergency' Natasha replied

'Is it Dad, has he been hurt?' Elena asked anxiously

'Mommy, what's wrong with Daddy?' Sofia chimed in, trying to keep up with the conversation her mother and older sister were having.

'No _Soneshka' _Natasha replied soothingly 'nothing is wrong with your Dad, it's just that Mommy's boss wants her at work'

'So are you going to leave us by ourselves or drop us off with someone?' Elena asked, wondering whether her Mom was going to leave them at Stark tower, to be looked after by the Avengers. She had fond memories of living in the tower when she was younger, but Aunt Pepper, Tony's wife, was the only one responsible enough to look after them.

'No and no' Natasha stated as she pulled up into the drive way of their home. 'You're coming with me'. If someone had told Natasha ten years ago, that one day she would live in a house with her two daughters and partner with a white picket fence, she would have probably laughed in their face, before hurting them badly. However that was watch she had and she smiled to herself, remembering what Clint had said when they viewed this house. _If we're going to be a proper family, we at least have to try and get it right. _'Lena, can you grab some things for you and Sofia and meet me back at the car in ten minutes' Natasha ordered as she headed into the house.

Elena nodded hearing the stressed tone, which had seeped into her mother's normally steady voice. She grabbed hold of Sofia's hand and led her up the stairs before helping her sister get some things to take before heading to her own room.

After she had grabbed a book and bundled some clothes together, Elena caught sight the framed picture which was situated on her book shelf. It had been taken by her Mom on the first time they had gone to the beach as a family. It was her and Sofia, buried up to their necks in sand whilst her dad stood next to them, leaning on his spade proudly. She really hoped that her Dad was alright. He had been away on duty for a week and although her Mom sounded confident that everything was ok, some things did not add up. What was really strange was that Fury was allowing both her and Sofia to go to headquarters, implying that he was desperate. She had not been back to headquarters ever since she had been carried out as a six year old after she had been rescued from the Black Widow Program.

Her life in the Red Room compound was a vague memory to her, unlike some of the other girls who had been rescued by the Avengers, who still remembered some parts of their time under Boris' rule. Irina was the main one she was still in touch with, since she worked alongside her Mom, but she knew that the others were also doing ok. One of the things she had kept on from the Program was an interest in martial arts, of which she was a black belt in karate.

'Elena we need to go!' Natasha called up the stairs as she got off the phone to Tony. She had called him the let him know what was going on and whether he knew anything else. He had only replied that it had been Clint and the Captain, who had been called out to deal with the threat and that Dr Banner had been called in, but he knew nothing else.

* * *

'You're late' Fury announced as Natasha, holding on tightly to a tired Sofia and curious Elena, walked through the doors to main meeting room onboard the S.H.E.I.L.D helicarrier.

'Well we would have been on time, if the quinjet that we had to get up here hadn't been delayed' she replied crossly. They had arrived in New York City at the S.H.E.I.L.D ground headquarters on time, so it was S.H.E.I.L.D's fault that the shuttle to the helicarrier was slow.

'Tasha?' Clint asked as he walked through the glass doors into the meeting room and saw his partner standing there with his daughters.

'Hey' she replied walking over to her partner whilst mentally assessing him for any injuries

'What are you doing here?' he asked, pressing a quick kiss to her check, though he longed to do more, however they were at work and had to be professional

'Apparently you've neutralised a threat who now needs to be urgently interrogated' she replied 'missed you' she added, whispering into his ear.

'Agent Romanoff, you're needed down in the detention bay' Fury said firmly, causing Natasha and Clint to break apart.

Natasha gave Clint, Elena and Sofia a reassuring parting glance before quickly scanning through the report Fury had handed her. It seemed that the man's blood readings produced so very irregular data and it seemed that his blood contained a lot of gamma radiation, which Dr Banner was now continuing to investigate.

The red haired assassin closed the folder as she strode confidently into the detention bay, walking towards the threat in the lone, highly reinforced cell in the middle of the room. The man in the cell turned to look at her as she approached and whispered a word which caused her to stop dead in her tracks.

'_Natashen'ka'_


	2. Chapter 2

'Where's Mommy gone?' seven year old Sofia asked as her mother disappeared out of the door.

'To deal with a bad man' Clint replied, picking up his sleepy daughter. 'Are you ok Lena?' he asked the fourteen year old, who seemed to be staring out into space, lost in her thoughts.

'Yeah' Elena replied looking around the room 'I just never thought I would be back here, it hasn't changed much' she remarked glancing around the room.

'Well the technology has been updated, but I guess Fury likes to keep things the same' Clint replied

'Agent Barton would you please follow me to the observation room' a black clothed S.H.E.I.L.D agent stated, standing in the door way.

Clint just raised his eyebrows and glanced at his two daughters, silently asking the man what he wanted Clint to do with them.

'They can come too' the man added reluctantly.

'Sir, will you be coming?' Clint asked Director Fury, who was lurking silently at the back of the control room.

'I'll be along shortly agent Barton' Fury replied 'you go on up'

The agent then led a reluctant Clint, who was still carrying Sofia, and Elena up to the observation room, from which they could watch the threat's interrogation. Clint was particularly interested to hear what his partner was able to get out of the man, he, Captain America and the Ghost were able to apprehend. It had been a really odd mission. Normally when someone was about to bomb a large area, they were fairly secretive about it, but with this guy, it was like he almost wanted to get caught. Clint had a secret suspicion that he only put up half a fight and they were lucky that it was only Irina, the Ghost, who sustained minor injuries. He wondered what the man was up to and who he was working for.

'Agent Barton, why don't you put Sofia down in that chair over there?' a sensible voice suggested and Clint whipped around to find Agent Hill standing next to him.

'Thanks' Clint replied, lowering his daughter into the padded chair, where she continued to sleep, his arms aching slightly.

'Agent Romanoff is almost at the detention bay, everyone ready' Agent Hill, Fury's second in command ordered to her fellow agents, who were all sitting watching the screens which monitored the cell, the large main one which was originally built to house the hulk.

Clint and Lena, who was standing next to him, not believing that she was about to watch her mother's legendary interrogation skills in action for the first time (she didn't count her mother's frequent questioning of who continued to walk mud into the house). They watched as the familiar red head appeared on the screen and walked towards the captured threat.

_'__Natashen'ka' _came the gruff voice of the man, filtering through the observation room speaker system.

Clint looked up in alarm, scrutinising the man on the screen. There had only been one person who had called his partner that and he was meant to be dead.

* * *

Natasha's head snapped up and stared at the man standing in the giant glass container. 'There is only one person who was ever allowed to call me that and he's dead' she stated coolly

'Well that makes two of us Natalia' the man replied, looking up at the red haired agent.

'Alexei' Natasha whispered taking another step closer towards the glass '_bozhe moĭ'_

'Ah, you recognise me now' the man barked 'I admit I don't look much like my younger self'

'Why are you here, why did you try and bomb Wall Street?' she asked cutting straight to the point, trying to push away the images of Alexei, her loving husband and focus on interrogating the man who stood in front of her; the man known as the Red Guardian.

Alexei, or whoever he had began to twitch, first his left eyebrow and the whole side of his scared face started to move. 'As if I would tell you' he snarled, his personality changing instantly.

Natasha tried to recall at that unexpected answer, having to remind herself that this man, this thing, was not Alexei. 'But we used to share everything' she stated quietly, looking up at him from under her eyelashes, trying to get information out of him.

'You didn't tell me who you were, that we were living a lie' he spat back at her

'How could I Alexei?' she replied 'how could I have told you that I was the Black Widow, that I seduced and killed men on a daily basis, it would have killed you'

'It nearly did kill me when I woke up to be told that both you and our child were dead'

'Who told you?' Natasha asked curiously, though she kind of already knew the answer. There had only been one person inside the KGB who had known about her daughter.

'Director Yusupov' Alexei replied

'_Chert yego' _Natasha cursed, wanting to dig up the man from his snowy grave and kill him again. He had played her, completely manipulating her, destroying not only her life, but the life of her innocent husband and daughter. 'So do you work for the KGB?' Natasha asked, trying to focus on her mission, getting information out of the Red Guardian.

The man began to twitch again, his bloodshot eyes narrowing. 'You're going have to try harder to get information out of me Natalia' he said in a harsh voice

'You're daughter has your eyes' Natasha stated, realising that Alexei was under some sort of mind control, almost like what she had been subjected to when she was in the Red Room, though undoubtedly it was stronger. She hoped that in mentioning personal things he would open up so she would be able to prise the all important information out of him. She could almost imagine Fury pacing up and down the observation room muttering under his breath, wanting her just to get on with it.

'And how do you know that she's my daughter, you skills as the Black Widow are infamous' Alexei replied scathingly

'I was married Alexei!' Natasha exclaimed wounded that even her estranged husband would think that of her. Why did everyone seem to believe that just because she was called the Black Widow, she had no morals? 'Do you remember that night in December in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of St Petersburg, the night before you had to report to the aerodrome?

'The night that was so cold and we only some thin blankets and your fur coat to keep us warm' Alexei stated the memory emerging from the far reaches of his brain 'The last night we were just Alexei and Natashen'ka. She has my eyes?' he asked quietly as Natasha mentally congratulated herself for temporarily breaking him out of his mind control

'Yes your bright blue eyes' Natasha replied taking a step closer towards the man who was the father of her eldest child, and looking into his eyes which were identical to hers, trying to find some resemblance between the man she was married to and the monster, the mind controlled bomber, in front of her. 'She also has your smile'

'Does she have your hair?' Alexei asked curiously

'Yes and my temper to match' Natasha replied with a smile. 'Would you like to meet her?'

'No' Alexei said sharply 'she shouldn't see me like this'

Natasha just nodded, knowing that despite her father's wishes, Lena was probably sitting up in the observation room watching this interrogation take place.

'Why did you try and bomb Wall Street?' Natasha asked again before pressing him further. 'Why did you try and carry it so obviously didn't you and your higher-ups realise that you were going to get caught?'

'I'm dying'

* * *

Lena found that as her mother's interrogation of the Red Guardian progressed, her Dad edged closer to her, his eyes never leaving the screens but their shoulders were not almost touching. She could tell that he was concerned just by his body language, but she couldn't work out whether he was concerned about her or her mother. She knew from the way her Dad's hand's where clinched tightly he didn't like the way that the way that her mother was talking to the Red Guardian, who had turned out to be Alexei, her biological father.

To be quite honest she didn't know what to make of it, her real father being alive. Her mother rarely spoke of him, but when she did it was always with fondness and a sad look in her eye. She had always been told that he was a fabulous fighter pilot who had died in a freak accident but now he was, quite disfigured but alive and called the Red Guardian. She had glanced at S.H.E.I.L.D's records on the Red Guardian, over one of the agent's shoulders and had been horrified but the list of atrocities he had apparently committed. Elena knew that several of the agents in the observation room warily and had edged away from her, the daughter of the infamous Black Widow and Red Guardian.

She gave a small gasp as the Red Guardian; she refused to think of him as her father, admitted that he was dying.

'Is that possible, is he telling the truth?' she heard her father, for all intents and purposes, ask Director Fury in a hushed voice.

'According to Dr Banner, who I have just got off the phone with, a more in depth analysis of his blood shows an extraordinarily high amount of gamma radiation in his blood, not dissimilar to what in Dr Banner and Captain America's blood.'

Clint just nodded, there had been rumours over the years that the Russians were trying to come up with their own answer to Captain America. 'But those two aren't dying' he stated

'It seems that the KGB's super serum also contained alpha radiation particles, which the other effects of the serum have kept at bay until now' Fury answered.

'Sir, it seems like Agent Romanoff is engaging the threat in conversation again' an agent reported pointing at one of the screens which was monitoring the interrogation.

'Well let's see what else Agent Romanoff is able to get out of her fellow Russian' the Director remarked, before striding forward to get a closer look at the screens as Clint reached down and surreptitiously slipped his hand around Elena's, give the fourteen year old's smaller hand a reassuring squeeze, letting her know that he was still there.

* * *

'What?' Natasha asked, finally finding her voice. She was not normally knocked speechless, but that simple statement had really surprised her.

'I'm dying' Alexei repeated

'But how? The gamma radiation?' Natasha asked

'I don't know, the doctor who told me said it was the super serum they gave me turning on itself or something like that' he answered

'So that was the reason why they decided to send you on this suicide mission?' Natasha asked, fishing for more information

'The person told me about this mission didn't know' Alexei replied 'besides I volunteered for it'

'So you could kill hundreds of innocent civilians?' Natasha asked, not even disguising how horrified she was by that thought.

'No, so I could see you again' Alexei stated 'And tell you-' he was cut off as the left side of his face began to spasm and he lost control of his body, falling to the floor.

'Wanted to tell me what?' Natasha asked, abandoning protocol and running towards Alexei, who was struggling on the floor, like he was wrestling with an invisible foe.

Alexei struggled to sit up. 'Lower the glass' he stated, in a moment brief moment of calm, before the mind control took over again.

Natasha hesitated, she knew she had already broken protocol by crossing the line and running towards Alexei, but lowering the glass was another thing entirely. She could almost hear Fury and Hill shouting at her, telling her not to do it. Even her brain, the cold hearted part of her brain, was telling her not to do it, telling her that this was just a ploy of the Red Guardian's, that he wasn't the tender husband she remembered, the one who adored her, even though she could never love him like he loved her.

'Please _Natashen'ka_'Alexei begged reaching up and pressing his hand to the glass which encased him.

Natasha closed her eyes, took a deep breath before making her decision.

* * *

'Agent Barton, what the hell is Romanoff doing?' Director Fury asked whirling around and staring at the Black Widow's partner with his one visible eye.

'I don't know sir' Clint replied quietly. For the first time in his and Natasha's long partnership he did not know what she was up to, she was behaving completely out of character. He trusted his partner and he just hoped she knew what she was doing.

Everyone in the observation room watched with a mixture of amazement, shock and apprehension as the Black Widow, one of S.H.E.I.L.D's greatest agents, raised her hand to the glass, mirroring the Red Guardian's position before typing in the security code with her other.

* * *

Natasha mentally began to count down the seconds before the alarms which surrounded the detention area went off.

'What did you want to tell me Alexei?' she asked again.

Alexei just reached into his suit and pulled out an old battered photograph. 'Give this to our daughter' he whispered 'she deserves to see us when we were young and happy, before everything happened'

_Before I betrayed you and caused you to turn into a mind controlled killing machine_ Natasha thought as she turned over the photograph to find her and Alexei's happy smiling faces staring back up at her. God she looked young! She thought as she stared at her and Alexei's wedding photograph. Natasha's attention turned back to her supposedly dead husband as he started to once again thrash abut on the floor. 'Hey, hey, Alexei stay with me' she ordered gripping on tightly to his shoulders to stop him moving about and giving him a shake. 'What did you come here to tell me?' she asked urgently, knowing that she was in a very precarious position and he could go back under the mind control at in any second.

Beep

Beep

Beep

Natasha swore under her breath in various different languages as the alarms around the detention block started to go off, red lights flashing everywhere. She had hoped that Clint might have been able to persuade Hill and Fury to hold off for a couple more minutes – she was finally getting somewhere!

'Alexei, what did you want to tell me?' she asked once again.

Alexei's bright blue eyes looked up in fear as her heard the alarms go off. 'They are come for you' he choked out.

Natasha was momentarily stunned, but quickly pulled herself together as she heard the thumping of the S.H.E.I.L.D agents' boots heading in their direction, no doubt to kill Alexei and arrest her. Instinctively she reached for her gun but instead of shooting Alexei, or at the approaching agents, she shot the control panel.

Natasha took one last look at the security camera, which she knew fed up to the observation deck, before the round glass cell, which contained both her and Alexei dropped out of the flying Helicarrier and plummeted towards the ground.

* * *

**Hi!**

**I am so so sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I have been having a very busy summer which why there has been a lack in updates and I also had to figure out were I was was going with this story because I launched into it without a real plan, but I've sorted it all out now.  
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** I've also started the other sequel to Lena - Sofia - so if you haven't already seen it, please check it out.  
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**I hope you enjoyed this chapter (please review) and hopefully the next one will be up sometime soon!  
**

**Many thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, you are all wonderful!  
**

**Cherry :)**

* * *

_Translations:_**  
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___bozhe moĭ'_ - my God  


_Chert yego - damn him_


	3. Chapter 3

So as she fell through the sky, in a large glass cylinder with her mind controlled, estranged husband, Natasha reflected that shooting the control panel, which released the container, was not the brightest idea she had ever had. However, in that split second when she had to decide whether to take a chance and hope that the S.H.E.I.L.D agent's weren't going to shoot her, or escape, she had decided to escape and it was the only way out.

She felt like she was on one of those fairground rides, she and Clint had taken the children on when they had visited Disney Land two years ago, as she was thrown from one side of the container to the other. Natasha could see that they were nearing land and just before the container hit the ground, she slipped out of the open window, the one she had initially opened to reach out to Alexei and landed gracefully landed in the cornfield. She had had enough practise jumping out of crashing planes with Clint, so she knew how to land safely. As she picked herself off the ground, Natasha looked up and using her hand to shield her eyes from the glaring light which was coming from where the glass container had crashed. It was on fire.

Quickly she ran towards it and hauled an unconscious Alexei out of the wreckage, before dragging him into the woods which surrounded the field. The fire, like a beacon, lighting up the night's sky. To any normal person falling out of the helicarrier in the glass container would have meant certain death, but both she and Alexei were not normal. She had been subjected to, as a child, various chemicals which meant that she had a stronger immune system and super healing and Alexei was now a super soldier, which is why she only found a couple of bruises, scratches and cuts when she check both of them over for injuries.

'Natalia?'

Natasha looked down and found Alexei opening his eyes

'Who is coming after me Alexei?' she asked

'Yus-pov' he coughed out

'No he can't be, he's dead' Natasha replied dismissing Alexei's answer 'I shot him myself. Is it the KGB in general or just one particular person?' she questioned further

'Ho-me' he breathed out, his eyes rolling back into his head.

'Alexei stay with me' Natasha shouted, frustrated at his lack of coherent response and she slapped him across this scarred face to try to get an answer out of the man. However it seemed to do no good as an evil look entered his eyes and he launched himself at Natasha.

Natasha reacted immediately in complete Black Widow and they fought back and forth. 'Alexei this isn't you' she whispered before performing her signature move, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his neck, performing the thigh choke. The defeated Red Guardian crumpled to the floor still twitching as he fought against the mind control.

'Please end this' he whispered, his eyes flashing from yellow back to his normal bright blue for a slip second.

Natasha pulled out her gun and pointed it at Alexei before uncharacteristically hesitating 'Alexei...I can't do this'

'You're the Black Widow; of course you can do this' he retorted whilst fighting the battle inside himself. He wanted to gain control over his own mind and win against his handlers who tried to control him, who had turned him into this monster, who was totally unrecognisable from the test fighter pilot who had married Natalia. He had always known that she had not loved him as much as he had loved her but that had not mattered to him, he was the only one he knew who could make her laugh and smile. He had fallen in love with her from the first moment he had seen her dance and had been absolutely distraught when he had woken up from his artificial coma to be told that both Natalia and his daughter, whom he hadn't realised existed had perished in a fire. He guessed that's why he was so easy to manipulate. He had no reason to live and no other reason to keep on fighting.

It had only been when he had seen clips of the newly formed avengers fighting against an alien invasion in New York and had seen a flash of red hair that he started fighting again. Memories he had suppressed resurfaced and over the years he had tried to rediscover Alexei, the man who was buried deep inside the heartless Red Guardian. However his missions had kept him away from the USA, so he had never been able to investigate if the red haired member of the Avengers, the Black Widow, was Natalia, or just a figment of his imagination. His performance on missions also began to deteriorate and he became weaker which led his bosses to discover that he was in fact dying. Then suddenly out of the blue this mission had come in the USA. He had thought it was rather peculiar but he knew it was his only chance before it was too late and when he had seen an older mature battle hardened Natalia walk through the detention block doors.

'Do it Natalia' Alexei ordered, trying to hold back the urge to fight her, which is what his handler was instructing him to do and he closed his eyes.

Bang

Natasha quickly pocketed her still warm gun. She had finally fulfilled her name. Over the years people had always assumed she was called the Black Widow because she had killed her husband and now she had finally done it. She noticed something clutched in Alexei's hand and bending down and wiping the blood off it, she discovered it was her wedding photo.

Knowing that S.H.E.I.L.D would be after her, she placed the photo, now Alexei's chest and knowing that they would find both the crashed container and Alexei's body, she left a quick message, which only Clint would understand, before running off into the night. She had to now work out what she was going to do next.

* * *

'Give me a week' Clint begged as Fury, swathed in his leather coat prowled about the room, deciding what to do next 'Agent Romanoff has been a loyal member of this organisation for thirteen years; I doubt she's gone rouge'

'Agent Romanoff just dropped out of this helicarrier with a man who was about to bomb Wall Street and kill hundreds of innocent civilians' Hill countered standing with her arms folded at her bosses side

'You saw how she reacted when she discovered it was Alexei, he's her husband for goodness sake' Clint remarked though the word husband tasted bitter in his mouth. He loved Tash so much and trusted her implicitly but it had hurt to see her interact with a man who for was still legally her husband. He and Natasha had never felt that they needed a ceremony, rings and a flimsy piece of paper to show that they loved each other; well that's what he told her. Personally he would love to declare his love for the Russian red head in public but he knew what his partner felt about marriage especially because of what had happened with Alexei. She had only been married for five months before he was 'killed' and she had gone mad afterwards.

'And she is also the Black Widow' Fury stated

'Didn't you hear what he told her?' Clint said, not prepared to give up without a fight 'he told her that they were after her

'Who though? Agent Romanoff has lots of enemies'

'I can only assume that's it's the KGB, who are out to get her' Clint stated. 'She ran because she didn't know how this agency would protect her against the KGB, she still remembers what happened when she was captured eight years ago, when you sold her out to the KGB. If you were in her position, wouldn't you run?'

Fury gave a heavy sigh. Agent Barton had put forward a very convincing argument and he could not begrudge him for sticking up for his partner. 'Assemble the rest of the Avengers and go after her but if Agent Romanoff is not standing in front of me, right here explaining what on earth was going through her head by this time next week, I'll send other agents after her with only one order, shoot to kill.' And he looked meaningfully at Clint with his one visible eye. 'Do you understand?'

'Yes sir' Clint replied stiffly and with a daughter either side of him, he walked out of the observation room, ready to catch a quinjet to Stark Tower.

* * *

The sun was just rising above the Manhattan skyline by the time he had parked the S.H.E.I.L.D quinjet on the landing pad at the top of Stark Tower. 'Come on then' he said to Sofia as he helped her down the quinjet's steep ramp.

Seven year old Sofia did not fully comprehend what was going on. She knew that her Mommy had been called in by her boss, the scary one with the eye patch, who looked like a pirate, to talk to a bad man whom her father had caught. She did not know exactly what her Daddy and Mommy did, she knew it was something top secret in the city but she also knew it wasn't in business like they told everybody back home. Her friend, Sandy's parents were also in business but they behaved nothing like her mom and dad.

However, whilst she did not fully comprehend what was happening she could sense something was up. She had been woken up from her nap in the observation room to by her several of the people in the from shouting at the television screens and then her Dad had been arguing with the eye patch man and now, without her Mom, they had landed on the top of Stark Tower. She loved visiting Stark tower, playing with all the random bits of technology which were lying around the place and annoying Uncle Tony but something was going on and she wondered where her mother was.

'Daddy why are we here?' Sofia asked her Dad as they walked down from the jet, through the glass doors into the top of Stark tower.

'Good morning Agent Barton' came the calm, crisp voice of JARVIS, which cut of Clint's reply 'I was not expecting you'

'Good morning JARVIS, where are the other avengers?' Clint asked eager to assemble the team.

'Mr Stark has just been woken up by Mrs Stark, Dr Banner is still in his lab, Thor is on Asgard and Mr Rogers arrived back here a couple of hours ago, would you like me to call them?' JARVIS replied

'Yes please'

'Lena what's going on?' Sofia asked her older sister, who had been, ever since they had left in the jet, been silent 'Where's Mommy?'

'Mom...Mom...'Lena struggled to find the right words to tell her younger sister what had happened while she had been asleep on the helicarrier and she was interrupted by the sound of Tony Stark entering the room, quickly followed by his wife Pepper.

'Clint, what brings you here at this ungodly time in the morning?' he asked as he strode, still dressed in his pyjama bottoms and dishevelled from sleep, into the room 'and where is your lovely partner, I see you brought the rest of the family?' he asked gesturing to Lena and Sofia, who were standing either side of their father.

'That's why I'm here' Clint began as a tired Dr Banner entered the room.

'Ah Clint, I was just about to head over to S.H.E.I.L.D to talk to the man you brought in about his unusual bloods-'

'That's the other reason why I am here'

'Hey Clint, what was Natasha able to out of that man?' came the voice of Captain America.

Clint sighed 'Natasha's gone AWOL' he stated as gasps filled the room

'But how?' Tony asked the first one to get over his shock.

Clint paused, he really wanted to tell his team, but not in front of his daughter's, especially Sofia, who seemed completely clueless to what was happening and he didn't want to destroy her innocence.

'Sofia, Lena do you want to help me make breakfast?' Pepper suggested, as if reading Clint's mind. Sofia, after a nudge from her Dad, to the strawberry blonde's out stretched hand but Lena stayed still and gave Clint as look which clearly said _don't tell me to go, I'm not a baby_ and Clint knew that she was her mother's daughter, so there was no point trying to argue with her.

When Pepper and Sofia had left the room, he launched into telling the rest of the Avengers what had happened during Natasha's interrogation of the man, with Lena supplying information when necessary.

'So you are telling me that Natasha, the woman who never lets her emotions get in the way of work, purposely fell out of the S.H.E.I.L.D helicarrier with her long lost husband, who had been caught trying to bomb Wall Street?' Tony asked once Clint had finished talking.

'Yes'

'Wow' he breathed out, even though they had been members of the same team for nearly 15 years, the red haired assassin still continued to surprise him.

'So we've been given a week to find Natasha?' Steve asked

'But you don't know if she even survived the fall' Bruce stated

Before Clint could reply and let the scientist that although Natasha was perfectly capable of surviving that fall, JAVIS interrupted him, stating that he had a message from S.H.E.I.L.D.

'Well put it through' Tony ordered the A.I

'Agent Barton, we have found where the cell from the detention area landed' came the voice of Director Fury filling the room 'and we've also found a body.'

* * *

_So this wasn't the greatest chapter ever and I know that it felt quite rushed. I'm sorry for that but I just needed to get this chapter over and done with, so I could move on to the move exciting parts of this story which are coming soon!_

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and please review this one  
_

_All the best  
_

_Cherry :)  
_

_ps. just to clarify for some readers because this came up in a review. This story is set five years after the epilogue of Lena, where Lena was nine and Sofia two, so in this story Lena is 14 and Sofia 7.  
_


	4. Chapter 4

_Can I use the Olympics as an excuse for why I have not updated? So proud of team GB. _

_Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter!_ :)

* * *

'So the Black Widow is actually a black widow' Tony Stark commented as he kicked the lifeless booted foot of the Red Guardian, formally known as Alexei Shostakov. 'What?' he asked as the rest of the avengers gave him withering glares.

'How do you know it was Natasha who killed him?' Steve asked, always trying to see the best in his team mate.

'The bullets' Clint replied from his position crouched next to the body 'or lack of them. Only one shot killed him, a bullet which pierced his bullet proof armour and judging by the size and shape of the wound it was fired from a Russian GSh-18, the type of gun Natasha uses'

'Do you know why she killed him; was it in self defence or in cold blood?' Bruce asked Clint from the other side of the body.

'Neither' Clint answered 'she killed him out of kindness'

'You mean this was an act of mercy?' Steve asked incredulously, he knew that the native Russian had a different moral compass to him, but it just did not make sense.

'If he had multiple gunshot wounds randomly dotted around his body that would have meant Natasha was shooting in self defence. If he had been shot in the head or abdomen or leg and would have therefore bled to death that would have meant that Natasha had shot him in cold blood. However she shot him directly in the heart so he died instantly' Clint stated, trying to explain his partner's actions.

'Is that him?' came the quiet voice of a person appearing at the edge of the woods, walking from where the quinjet was parked in the same field where the giant glass container had crashed.

'Elena what are you doing here, I told you to stay in the tower?' Clint asked standing up and walking towards the fourteen year old girl who was now staring at the dead body.

'I couldn't just stay there and help Aunt Pepper and Sofia make cupcake whilst not knowing if it had been Mom's body S.H.E.I.L.D had found' Lena replied taking another step forward.

'Lena, now you know it's not your mother, why don't you head back and wait inside the jet' Bruce suggested 'you really shouldn't be here, you don't need to see this'

'So it is him?' she asked standing still, with her arms crossed, wanting clarification

'Yes'

'And Mom killed him?'

'Yes – but you have to remember, Lena, that this man was not your father, he had been twisted and manipulated and was almost unrecognisable from the man your mother married' Bruce said, not knowing how Lena was going to react.

'I know that' Lena whispered 'I just wanted to see'

'And now you have-'

'What's that?' Lena asked cutting across Bruce and pointing to something which was tucked under the dead man's armour. Ignoring the teams protests, she walked towards the body and extracted the object. 'It's the photo he wanted Mom to give to me' she whispered, remembering what she had heard and seen during her mom's interrogation/conversation with the man who was biologically her father. '_bozhe moĭ'_ she remarked staring at the picture. 'I knew Mom was young when she got married, but not that young'

The fourteen year old girl soon had a curious Tony Stark and Steve Rogers peering over her shoulders, eager to see what the Black Widow had looked when she was younger.

'Look how long her hair was!' Tony exclaimed when he saw that in the wedding photograph, Natasha's trademark red hair fell all the way down to her waist, in sharp contrast to the short bob she now kept it in.

'Guys!' Bruce exclaimed after they had spent several minutes gazing at the photograph 'focus on the mission. We still have no idea where Natasha has gone.'

'This is Mom' Lena interjected 'if she doesn't want to be found, you won't be able to find her. You have to wait until she contacts you'

'Wait...no' Steve stated

'What?' Tony asked

'It's just it looked like there was something on the back of the photograph, but it's just some blood'

'Give the photograph here' Clint ordered. He, up until that moment had kept quiet, running through all things Natasha and Alexei had said to each other before they had fallen out of the helicopter, in his head. As Lena handed the photograph to him, he briefly glanced and Natasha's nineteen year old face in her wedding dress, before turning it over to have a look at the smudges of blood on the back. He had scoured the area trying to find any clues from his partner indicating where she had gone, but he had found nothing. The only thing Natasha had left behind had been a dead body with a bullet hole in the centre of his chest.

The smudges of blood on the back of the photograph may have looked like simple drops of blood, but as Clint rotated the photograph he realised that Natasha had left a message for him to find in Morse Code. 'I've found something' he announced to the rest of the team 'Natasha's left as message in Morse Code'

'In blood?' Tony asked, mildly disgusted

'Well what else could she write with' Clint replied as if Tony was being stupid and that writing with blood was an everyday occurrence

'So what does it say?' Banner asked

-.- . . .-. / ... .- ..-. . 'Keep safe' Clint translated for the rest of the team -.-. - -. - .- -.-. - / ... - - -. 'Contact soon'.

.-.. - ...- . / -.- - ..- _Love you_ he translated silently to himself.

'So basically we just have to wait to until Natasha decides to make contact with us' Steve stated with a sigh. The teams unofficial leader, not happy not being in control.

'Yes' Clint stated 'who knows where she is now'

'Well surely she would have gone to one of your safe houses?' Captain Rogers pressed

'Yes, but even so, she still has a couple which she keeps a secret from me' the archer answered 'the best thing we can do now is go back to the tower and wait'

* * *

Natasha paid the taxi driver before walking up the stone steps and unlocking the black door to her safe house in central London. She crept up the stairs before reaching the door to her flat and after having her thumbprint and iris scanned she entered. Natasha and Clint had several safe houses dotted around the world in case they and their family needed to go into hiding. However they also had one or two houses whose location they kept secret from their other partner. It had been Clint who had insisted that they did this to insure that they could keep their girls safe if something like the Loki incident happened again and one of them ended up compromised.

Natasha finally gave into the exhaustion which was building up inside her and collapsed onto the swishy leather sofa in the middle of the otherwise sparsely furnished room. It had been a very long day. After leaving Alexei's body in the woods she had stolen a nearby car and driven to the nearest airport, where she had snuck passed security with a few charming words and an alluring smile, before sneaking aboard the next plane leaving for London.

As she lay there, looking back on everything that had happened ever since she had received the urgent phone call from Director Fury and then finding out that her dead husband was not actually dead, but how they had both been manipulated by the KGB and whilst she had become the deadly Black Widow, he had been turned into the KGB's answer to Captain America, with terrible consequences. When he had seen him in the giant glass holding cell she could not believe it was him. His once handsome face was now gruesomely scared and it was only his piercing blue eyes, which he had passed on to his daughter, she recognised. It had been hard to pull the trigger and send a bullet straight into Alexei's heart, but she had had to do it.

She guessed that over the years she had been wishfully thinking that her past would not catch up with her. The KGB had made it perfectly clear that they would rather she was dead when they bombed the Black Widow compound in Siberia eight years ago, but this was the first time she has actually heard, from the mouth of one of their own operatives, that they were after her.

What had Alexei meant with his last words 'Yus-pov' and 'ho-me'? She had killed the Director of the Red Room and high ranking KGB member Boris Yusupov when she had rescued Lena. Home, did that mean Russia? To be perfectly honest, she had kind of gathered that she would have to head back to her homeland eventually, but it was the way that he had looked at her, as if he was trying to convey something, which had made her hesitate from taking the first plane to Moscow. The word home had so many connotations. Did he mean his home or her home? When they had married they had lived in a hotel room in the centre of St Petersburg since neither of them had enough time off from their demanding jobs to spend time house hunting. Her home in which she had been born had been burnt down in a fire and his family home was in the heart of Moscow. It seemed illogical to her that Alexei would warn her had the KGB were coming after her and then, in his dying words before the mind control took over, tell her to go straight into the capital of the country.

So where was a home outside of Russia? Natasha lay there, her eyes closed flicking through files of information in her mind. Suddenly she sat bolt upright as it suddenly hit her – Berlin! Alexei's father had been an ambassador for the old USSR in East Germany and Alexei had spent most of her early childhood in the city. She leapt off the sofa and began to run around the flat collecting all the necessary things she would need to take with her, the various knives and guns, she had in the flat, as well as one of her many passports, knowing that she couldn't chance airport security twice. She stuffed everything into an inconspicuous duffle bag and was about to leave the flat and head to the airport, where she knew she would be able to sneak aboard a plane to the German capital, when she hesitated.

Ten years ago she would have had no problems about heading straight out of that door but now she was now part of a team, as she was frequently reminded, she knew that they, especially her partner Clint, would be worried about her and she had said that she would contact them. She knew that she could just rush in, but she had learnt in her years as an Avenger, that it was good to gave back up. She picked up the phone and called Stark tower, where she assumed everyone would be gathered.

'Bullet to the shoulder, fourteen stitches' she stated, leaving another message for Clint to interpret, before quickly hanging up, lest someone try and trace her call.


	5. Chapter 5

_I am so so so sorry for not updating in so long! School started and I have been so busy, that writing this story and all the ideas I had for it, just got pushed out of my mind. Anyway I then got the DVD and knew I had to start work on this story again. I so sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I'm not quite happy with it but I wanted to get something out, so please bear with me. The next chapter should hopefully be up sooner than this one.  
_

_many thanks  
_

_Cherry :)  
_

* * *

'Sir, I'm receiving a call from an unidentifiable source' came the crisp voice of JARVIS, Stark tower's resident A.I

'Put it though JARVIS' Tony ordered, from his position on the couch.

_'Bullet to the shoulder, fourteen stitches'_

'Bullet to the shoulder, fourteen stitches' that's Tash's voice' Clint exclaimed, suddenly sitting up from where he had been lying on the couch opposite.

'JARVIS, can you trace the call?' Steve asked, walking into the room, having heard the message.

'I'm sorry to say Captain that the call was too short so I was not able to get a trace on it'

'So what did that actually mean?' Bruce asked, looking at Clit, who was now muttering things under his breath.

'Yes, is it another one of those obscure clues, which are meant to mean something?' Tony asked his team

said, repeating his partner's words to himself, trying to pin point the mission she was referring to. There had been several missions, where at least one of them had been shot in a shoulder, but fourteen stitches? That was a big wound. Then suddenly it hit him.

'Berlin' he whispered

'What?' Tony asked, barley hearing what the archer had said

'Berlin, she wants to meet us in Berlin' Clint stated standing up to address the team

'How did you get from that cryptic message to the German capital? Tony asked curiously

Clint sighed, knowing that his teammate was just going to bug him until he answered the question. 'The first time Natasha and I were in Berlin on a mission, we had only been in a partnership for a couple of months and were still having teething problems. The mission had actually gone ok, but we hadn't realised that a bomb had been placed in the building to activate if the mafia boss, who we had just taken out, was killed. Anyway, there was a big explosion, and a piece of shrapnel went straight into Natasha's shoulder. She was fine, but needed required 14 stitches.'

'You guys have weird ways of remembering things' the annoying genius commented

'So we need to go to Berlin' Steve, still the unofficial leader of the group stated

'Yes, soon as possible' Clint replied, his mind already making calculation about how long it would take to get to the German capital and where his partner would be located

'Daddy was that Mommy's voice?' Sofia asked charging to the room, having escaped from Pepper's care.

'Yes _Soneshka' _Clint replied, bending down to scoop his seven year olddaughter

'Is she alright? Is she going to be coming home soon?' Sofia asked, burying her head into the crook of her father's neck, missing her mother.

'I hope so' Clint replied, giving his daughter one last squeeze before placing her back on the ground.

'Are you going to get her, is that why everyone is rushing around?' Sofia asked noticing how the members of her father's team were now running around, sorting out all their armour and weapons as well as making sure they had enough supplies for the mission ahead.

'Yes' Clint answered reassuringly 'we'll go and find your mother whilst you stay here and be a good girl with Aunt Pepper and your sister'

'Wait a minute!' Lena interjected, leaping up from where she had been sitting curled up in one of the white leather arm chairs 'I'm not staying here, I'm going with you and the rest of the team!'

'No Lena, you'll stay here with Pepper and help her look after your sister' Clint said, turning his attention to Natasha's teenage daughter

'But I want to come with you!'

'It's too dangerous'

'But-'

'Lena I know your worried your mother, but your presence would only hinder the mission' Clint reasoned.

'But I can help. I can fight, I'm not completely useless!' she protested angrily

'I said no, Elena' Clint replied firmly, knowing that Natasha would not want Lena to go with them and be put in the path of danger.

'You're not my father, you can't tell me what to do!'

Everyone froze. The Avenger's living quarters, which only a moment ago had been filled with noise, were now absolutely silent.

Clint to a deep breath, knowing everyone was waiting to him to respond to Lena. 'That may be the case Elena' he stated, his flawless cold assassin's mask firmly in place, not betraying what he was really feeling 'but in the absence of your mother I'm your legal guardian and therefore responsible for your welfare, which means I can tell you what to do. In this case Elena, you are staying here with your sister'

Lena remained silent, just standing there as the team finished suiting up before departing on their mission to find Natasha. To the outside world, the only inclination of what she was feeling was the small tear which squeezed out of the corner of her left eye as the quinjet, bearing the Avengers, took off from the top of the tower heading for Berlin.

* * *

'Hey are you ok?' Steve asked, coming over to sit next to Clint, who was sat by himself staring out of the window as they soared above the clouds.

'Yeah' the archer replied, not looking at the captain.

'She didn't mean it you know' Steve said, 'she just tired, upset and worried about her Mom'

'I know' Clint answered, turning around to face Steve 'but it doesn't mean that it didn't hurt just a little bit. I've raised Lena every since we rescued her from Russia all those years ago. I'm her father in every sense of the word apart from biologically and when I try and do what is right and what is best for her, she just throws it in my face.'

'You did the right thing' Steve said patting his teammate reassuringly on the shoulder 'Natasha would have flipped if we had brought Elena along with us'

'She would have gone absolutely mad, if she had seen Lena with us' Clint confirmed, just imagining what his fiery redhead partner would do if she had discovered that her fourteen year old daughter had been brought along on this mission.

'So do you have any idea where in Berlin Natasha wants to meet us?' Steve asked, standing back up 'the city is quite a big place'

'I know exactly where she will be' Clint replied a small smile 'Cap, I just hope you like kuchen'

* * *

Lena sat staring up at the night's sky, the moonlight reflecting of the salty wet tear tracks on her face. How could she have been so stupid to have shouted that at her Dad? Clint was her Dad, maybe not biologically, but he had been more a Dad to her than the stranger in the photograph she sat clutching. The man in the blood splattered photograph was a stranger to her. They might share the same blue eyes and straight nose, but that was about it. Clint was the one who had rescued and raised her. He had been the one to banish her nightmares, the one who had looked after her when she was ill, the one who had taught her how to ride a bike, the one who helped her with her physics homework and the one who would clench his fists and look dangerous anytime she mentioned a boy.

Now he must hate her, since she had just thrown all back his love and care back in his face. How she wanted to contact her Dad and let him know that she was sorry and that she didn't mean it, but she couldn't, not when he was on a mission. She wanted to wish him good luck and tell him to find Mom and bring her back safely. Lena knew it had been stupid to expect that they would let her go on the mission with them, but with all the revelations about her real father being alive, then finding out that people wanted her mother dead and then seeing her father's dead body knowing that her mother had killed him, she just wanted to find out the truth about what was actually happening and the only way to do that was to go with the Avengers.

'Would you like a cookie?' came a small voice, jolting Elena from her confused thoughts. She turned around to find that her seven year old sister had sat down next to her, placing a plate stacked high with homemade cookies between them. 'You missed dinner so I thought you might want some' Sofia continued, settling down next to her silent sister 'they're raspberry and white chocolate chip, your favourite' she said pushing the plate towards Lena.

Lena, giving in to her growling stomach, reached out and took a cookie before slowly talking a bite. 'Oh, they're good' she said with a mouthful of cookie.

'I made them this morning with Aunt Pepper, when you were all out looking for Mom, hey are you ok Lena?' Sofia asked, noticing her older sister's wet cheeks

'Yeah I'm ok' Lena replied

'No you're not, you've been crying' Sofia stated

'I've just been stupid'

'Is this about what you shouted at Daddy earlier?'

'You heard that?'

'Lena, I think half of New York heard you' Sofia replied bluntly whilst taking one of her own cookies and pushing the plate towards Lena, urging her to have another. 'If Daddy isn't really your daddy, does this mean that I'm not really your sister?' she asked

'No of course you are my sister' Lena replied, wrapping her arm around her sister and pulling her close.

'Then why did you say all those things to Daddy? Has it got something to do with that man Mommy was talking to before she disappeared?'

Lena nodded. 'That man was from Mommy's past' she said, trying to work out how to explain everything to her younger sister. 'That man was my father'

'Then why was everyone so shocked, why was Mommy interrogating him and why had I never seen him before?'

'Mommy thought he was dead, I was told he died before I was born' Lena answered

'And was he a bad man?' Sofia asked, looking up at Lena

'I don't know _Soneshka' _Lena replied with a sigh

'But he's the reason why you shouted at Daddy?'

'Yes'

'Who's not your real Daddy?'

'Yes-well-he's not my father biologically but he's always been my Dad and I'm so confused Sofia'

'So you love me?'

'Of course I do _Soneshka'_

'And you love Daddy?'

'Yes'

'And you love this other man?'

'I don't know – no, not really – but it doesn't matter anymore'

'Why not?'

'He's dead'

'Oh'

'And I suppose I'm meant to be upset, but I'm more worried about Mom, Dad and the rest of the team' Lena said with a tired sigh.

'Can I sleep in your room tonight?' Sofia asked snuggling into her sister's side as they continued to sit side by side on the roof.

'Yeah' Lena replied wrapping her arms tightly around her sister, with their Mom missing at their Dad on a rescue mission, they had look after each other.


	6. Chapter 6

_'Do you know that we've been married for nearly five months and with both of our busy work commitments, we still haven't had a proper honeymoon?'_

_Natalia mumbled something unintelligible in answer to her husband's question as she buried herself into the pillow, trying to hang onto the last moments of sleep and burying herself under the blankets, trying to keep out the cold December air._

_'I think we should go somewhere' Alexei continued, slowly beginning to trail his fingers lazily up and down his wife's bare back._

_'Go where?' Natasha replied, rolling over to face her husband_

_'Let's get out of Russia' he stated _

_'Out of Russia?' she questioned_

_'Yes – I know, we should go to Berlin'_

_'Berlin? Wouldn't somewhere like Tallinn or Minsk be closer?' Natasha suggested, wondering how she would be able to manage a honeymoon around all her missions._

_ 'I used to live in Berlin; it's where I grew up. I can show you my old house and we can see where the Wall used to be and we can go and stand under the Brandenburg gate' Alexei said excited, smiling down at his wife as he began to plan out their trip. I can also take you to this wonderful cafe where they make the most amazing cakes'_

_'That all sounds wonderful, but when will we have the time' Natasha said practically, resting her head on her arms and looking up at her husband. 'Like you already said, we lead very busy lives'_

_'I'm sure that I'm owed a couple of days off by my bosses because I have been doing so much overtime these past couple of weeks and surely your Ballet master will let you have a few days off. From what you have told me, you're not working towards any big productions anytime soon' Alexei pressed. 'We've spent more time in this hotel than our apartment over the last month, because of our work commitments'_

_'Well if our apartment was closer to where we actually worked we would probably be living there' Natalia remarked. 'Look, I'll talk to my ballet master when I get to practise' Natalia added as she began to get out of bed._

_'Hey, ballet warm up does not start until 8.30, you don't need to go yet' Alexei stated, grabbing hold of her arm._

_'Alexei I have to get ready' Natalia replied trying to pull away_

_'Natashen'ka, it's only 6.00, you have over two hours to get ready'_

_'So?'_

_'Well I can think of something better to do to do in those two hours' Alexei replied a suggested smirk now on his face._

_'And what might that be Mr Shostakov?' Natalia asked, returning the smile and allowing her husband to pull her back into their warm bed._

* * *

_Natalia staggered up the flights of stairs which led up to her apartment, before unlocking the door and entering. The apartment was empty since Alexei was currently out in the middle of nowhere testing some of the latest planes the army were developing. Natalia walked into the bedroom and peeled off her torn, ripped and blood stained dress she had been made to wear for the mission she had just been on. It had just been a simple seduce and kill, nothing to strenuous, yet she was absolutely shattered. She guessed it was because she was tired of loving a double life and keeping secrets from her husband. Alexei still had no idea that she was not the ballerina said she was but a highly trained assassin. Instead of telling him that she was going way on missions, she said that she extra ballet practises or performances in theatres away from their home in St Petersburg. The person Alexei knew as her formidable ballet master was really Boris Yusupov the director of the Red Room, under the command of the KGB._

_It had been an interesting conversation, her trying to convince her bosses to give her a couple of days off so she could go on a honeymoon with her husband, but they had been the ones who had encouraged her relationship with Alexei. She did not love her husband, how could she when it had been stamped out of her at an early age, but she liked the way that he was always there and welcomed her home from work with a loving smile. Natalia found herself missing his companionship and presence as she walked around the empty apartment. _

_She passed the phone on her way to the small kitchen where she planned to indulge herself in some comforting coffee, when she noticed the message button flashing. Curious to hear who had been leaving her messages on her answer phone, she pressed the button._

_'I was hoping that you would be in today when I called you, but obviously your ballet master is working you hard and making you go to extra practises' came the voice of Alexei, filling the empty apartment. 'Anyway, I just wanted to know that I have talked to my boss and I think I've managed to get a couple of days off next month. We're now one step closer to Berlin! I've got to go now, the commander wants me to try out this new fighter jet, but I'll be home soon. I love you Natashen'ka.'_

_Then a toneless beep sounded signalling the end of the message_

* * *

_When Natalia rolled out of bed the next morning she found a small official looking envelope sitting on her doormat. Curious, she opened it and began to read._

_Dear Mrs Shostakov,_

_I am writing to regretfully inform you that your husband, Captain Alexei Shostakov was killed yesterday whilst testing a new type of fighter plane..._

_The rest of the words on the page began to blur tears began to pool in Natalia's green eyes. The letter slid through her fingers onto the floor as she gave in and began to cry, something she had not done since early childhood._

_Alexei was dead_

_Eventually she stood up, pulling herself together and angrily wiped away the last couple of tears that were meandering down her cheeks. Only clad in one of Alexei's old shirts and a dressing gown, she picked up the phone and dialled Boris' number, he would know what to do._

* * *

'So you got my message' Natasha remarked 'I thought I had been a bit too vague'

'I could never forget Berlin' her partner replied before sitting down in the seat opposite her.

'I ordered your favourite' Natasha said, closing the German newspaper she had been reading, before neatly folding it and placing it down on the metal table. 'So how long have I got?' she asked calmly, as Clint tucked hungrily into the cake she had pushed in front of him.

'A week-well more like just over five days now' Clint replied, enjoying the cake, having not eaten much over the last couple of days. 'So why Berlin?' he asked

'Alexei' Natasha answered simply, taking a sip from her cup of coffee, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. 'I want to find out who is after me and this seemed a good place to start'

Suddenly Clint's phone began to beep and vibrate. 'The rest of the team wants to know whether I have been able to contact you' he told Natasha, after glancing at the phone quickly

'The rest of the team is here?' Natasha asked, she knew she had called Stark tower, but she had not actually expected them to come. Then she felt slightly guilty for doubting the team she had been a apart of for almost ten years.

'Yep, waiting for us in a hotel a couple of streets away from here'

'Well let's not leave them waiting' Natasha stated, standing up and leaving the small coffee, with Clint following after her.

* * *

'I told you not to doubt him' Steve commented when he caught sight of Clint leading a familiar red haired woman towards them'

'Well don't you find it a bit weird that he says she knows exactly where she is a huge capital city, when we haven't heard more from her?' Tony asked

'Yes Tony, the city may be huge, but there is only one coffee shop worth visiting' Natasha stated upon hearing her teammate's comment

'Especially when they do the best cake' Clint added 'I'm so glad they reopened after we accidently blew it up'

'Blew it-never mind, I don't want to know' Bruce stated.

'So why come to Berlin?' Tony asked his teammate 'why not go to Moscow?'

'We don't know conclusively that it is the KGB who are after me' Natasha replied 'Alexei just said that _they_ were after me, I have other enemies besides the ones who come from Russia.'

'But the evidence points towards them, I meant they sent their super soldier, the Red Guardian after you'

'I know, but I want to make sure it is actually them before charging straight into Russia'

'And the answers are here in Berlin?' Bruce asked

'Look, just follow me and hopefully we will get some answers' Natasha replied

She led the avengers through the streets of central Berlin until they came to a rather grand imposing house. Natasha walked up the stone steps and crouched down next to the door. Pulling a hair pin out from amongst her red curls, she inserted it into the key hole. After a couple of seconds there was a click, she pushed the old heavy door open and ushered the team inside.

'What is this place, you didn't mention it the last time we were in Berlin?' Clint asked his partner. 'Last time we were here we had to make do with that horrible apartment Coulson rented for us.'

'We couldn't have stayed here last time, because this house doesn't belong to me and anyway, from what I remember of Berlin we spent more time trying to disable bombs then staying the apartment' Natasha replied, closing the door behind her and bolting the door.

'I don't want to break up your little reminiscing fest but if you don't own this house, then who does?' Tony asked the red haired assassin who was now checking the all for listening devices.

'This house belonged to Alexei, well it belonged to his family' Natasha replied turning to face her teammates now satisfied that there were no listening devices or cameras in the near vicinity. Upon seeing everyone's questioning faces, she then preceded to tell them everything that had had happened after she had fallen out of the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier.

'Wow' Steve said finally after Natasha had finished her tale.

'Hey Natasha is this you?' Tony asked, cutting through the awkward silence which had fallen between the Avengers and walking over to a dusty picture which was hanging on the wall. Through the layer of dust he could just make out some red hair. Curious, he wiped the dust away to reveal, in all its glory, a large photograph of a young Natasha. She was standing so she was not facing the camera directly, but was gazing off somewhere into the distance. She was wearing a pristine white tutu and ballet shoes, but instead of being up in a neat bun, her hair fell in long flame coloured tendrils down her back.

As if in a trance, Natasha walked towards the photograph and reached up the touch the glass covering. She had not known that this picture had been taken, but it must have been after one of her performances in St Petersburg, around the time she met Alexei. She looked so young and innocent, it was almost impossible to tell that this girl had been trained to be deadly killer.

'Tasha, shall we see what other information this house contains?' Clint asked his partner

'Yes, right, of course' Natasha replied, jolted out of her thoughts by her partner's question. 'Knowing Alexei, there should be some sort of study somewhere around here. Why don't we break up and search the house, Clint and I'll take the upstairs, Bruce, Tony and Steve, are you ok searching down here?' Natasha asked

'Sounds good' Steve, the unofficial leader, replied, nodding for the rest of the team to follow Natasha's instructions.

* * *

'Hey Nat, are you ok?' Clint asked, turning to face his partner as they made their way up the stairs, away from the rest of the teams prying eyes 'you're not really acting like yourself'

'Yeah, yeah I'm fine' the red haired assassin replied, leaning against the wall and taking a deep breath.

'Nat, you're clearly not fine' Clint stated, seeing through his partner's strong façade

'Just being here, seeing Alexei, seeing all those photos, just brings back a lot of memories of a time I'd like to keep buried in the past.'

'You've been here before?' Clint asked, he thought that their infamous mission to Berlin had been her first time in the German capital

'No, I was supposed to, but I never made it, other unfortunate circumstances got in the way' Natasha replied

'Alexei died?'

'I got a letter to say he had been killed. The girl downstairs was practically innocent compared to the woman I became after that. That was when I really became the Black Widow and then I discovered I was pregnant and well, you know what happened after that'

Clint slowly walked towards his clearly troubled partner and wrapped his arms around her, whilst placing a kiss tenderly onto her forehead.

'Are the girls ok?' she asked, enjoying the feeling of having Clint's arms around her again 'I feel so bad for just abandoning them like that. Are they being looked after, are they still on the Helicarrier?'

'I took them to Stark's and Pepper is looking after them' Clint replied reassuringly

'But are they ok?'

'Everything is fine Tash' Clint replied, somewhat evasively, remembering the last conversation he had with Lena

'Are you sure?'

'Yes, I think Pepper was making cookies with them when I left' and be bent down and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

'Hey, have you guys found anything yet?' came the annoying voice of Tony Stark through their comns, clearly having the worst sense of timing.

'No, nothing yet' Natasha replied, snapping straight back into her Agent Romanoff persona, her moment of weakness finally over.

'How about you Bruce?' Tony asked

'No I haven't found anything in the Library yet' the scientist replied

'Well let us know as soon as you find anything of interest' Steve, in full Captain America mode ordered.

'Roger that'

'I guess we'd better get to work' Clint said as he kicked the first door on the landing open and the two master assassins began their search.

* * *

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please review and let me know what you made of it. Hopefully more will be coming soon!**

**Clari :)  
**


	7. Chapter 7

Has anyone actually found anything yet?' Captain Steve Rogers asked through the comms after a couple of hours of searching

'No' came the voice of Dr Bruce Banner

'Nothing of interest from me' Tony reported from the library 'though I could tell a lot about Russian military history'

'There's nothing up here guys' Clint stated cutting trhough Tony's ramble

'Natasha, are you sure there is something here?' the captain asked

'There has to be' the red head replied 'Alexei must have told me to come here for a reason'

'What did he say exactly?' Bruce asked

'He said home'

'Could he have meant home, as in a home in Russia?'

'We never really had a home in St Petersburg, we stayed in a hotel more than our apartment' Natasha replied softly. 'This was where he grew up, this was his home and this was the last place he talked about to me before...' she trailed off and the comms went silent.

'Natasha, Natasha, are you still there?' Steve asked anxiously, concerned about this uncharacteristic behaviour from the Black Widow.

'I'm here Cap' came a reply a couple of seconds later.

'Look, why don't we re-group and think about what to do next' came the voice of Agent Barton, who until that moment had been silent. 'You guys know as well as I do that Natasha's instincts are rarely wrong, which means that there must be something in this old house.

'So you're sure you check the whole of the upstairs?' Steve asked Clint, for what seemed the thousandths time, as they stood in the hall, wondering what to do next. None of them wanted to admit defeat because that would mean that they were back to square one, with no way of knowing who was after Natasha.

'Yes and the attic' Clint replied whilst watching his partner out of the corner of his eye. When they had re-grouped, Natasha had remained very quiet and very still. The sweeping of her emerald green eyes, scanning the room, were her only movements. Then suddenly her eyes brightened and she spun around to face the team. 'What is it Nat? Clint asked

'Tony, when you went to look at that picture you had to wipe away the dust?' Natasha stated

'Yes, it was covered' Tony replied wondering where thing was going

'And you have all observed, in your exploration of this house, that everything seems to be covered in at least an inch of dust'

'Yes...'

'So why is that painting clean?'

The team all turned to look at the small, inconspicuous painting hanging on the wall. Natasha walked closer to the painting, a water colour depicting a general countryside scene. Upon closer inspection, it was not entirely clean, but hand prints were visible on either side of the frame. Standing on her tip toes, almost en-pointe, she reached up and unhooked the painting off the wall revealing what was behind.

'What do you think happens if you push it?' Steve asked looking up at the small red button which had been revealed.

'Well there's only one way to find out' Tony stated before reaching up and pressing the button.

As the wooden floor began to shake, the two assassins instinctively dropped to the floor followed by the rest of the team.

'Do you know how irresponsible that was Stark?' Steve hissed from his position lying down on the wooden floor 'you had no idea what would happen'

'Well nothing has happened' Tony replied with a cocky grin, beginning to stand up. Suddenly there was a bang as bullets fired out of the walls.

'Get down' Clint shouted, reaching up to pull his teammate back to the floor, just in the nick of time as bullets rained over their heads.

'Bruce just stay calm' Natasha whispered to her teammate, knowing that this was not the best time for the other guy to make an appearance.

'I'm trying, but have you noticed that the bullets are firing from successively lower positions on the wall, we have to move'

'Clint, can you see anything?' Steve asked as a misty gas started to seep through holes in the wall.

'Over there' the archer said, pointing to a door way which had opened in behind one of the old dusty bookcases on the opposite side of the room.

The captain just nodded and on his command the team half crawled, half slithered across the floor towards the passage way. Natasha held her hand up, covering her nose and mouth as she followed the rest of the team. She could feel her eyes start to sting and water as the gas reached them and as the bullets reached another level; she dived towards the open passageway, where the rest of the team were waiting, Bruce shutting the door behind her.

'Are you ok?' Clint asked Natasha, who gave a cough in response, trying to clear the gas from her lungs.

'I think it was only tear gas' Bruce remarked as the group crouched at the top of the dark passageway. 'So are we going to see where this goes' he asked

'Have we got any light?' Steve asked

'Yeah here' Clint replied, reaching inside his rucksack and tossing a torch towards the captain.

The Avengers, following the captain, quickly made their way down the long winding passageway.

'Do you have any idea where we are Tony?' Bruce asked his fellow scientist

Tony, who had been ministering their position underground with the help of JARVIS, held up a hologram projected from his specially adapted Starkphone. 'We've travelled about 25 metres down and 62 metres east, from our original location' he reported.

'By the looks of things, according to the hologram JARVIS is projecting, we seem to be heading towards some sort of bunker' Bruce said

'One of the old World War Two bunkers' Natasha whispered, catching Steve's attention.

'But why would the passage lead there?'

'We're still on the east side of Berlin right?' she asked Tony who nodded in confirmation. 'During the war you know that all the countries had these secret bunkers, well the ones on the east side of Berlin must have been taken over by the Russians after the war. Alexei's father was an important member of the group of Russians which kept an eye on East Germany during the Cold War, therefore a bunker like this one, would be a good place to hide if there was an attack' Natasha explained

'But you have no idea what could be down there now?'

'No'

Finally the Avengers reached an iron door at the end of the passage, which they assumed led to the bunker.

'So now what?' Tony asked

'Clint' Natasha said beckoning her partner over from her position crouched down by the door. 'Captain, can I have the light?' she also asked.

Clint, after so many years of being Natasha's partner, knew what the Black Widow was about to do and out of his trusty rucksack, pulled out all the equipment she would need to break into the bunker.

'A standard Soviet lock' she stated, gripping the torch under her chin as she inspected the small inconspicuous lock, attached to a keypad on the right hand side of the door.

'But you can open it?' the captain asked

'Steve, this is easy' Natasha remarked with a grin

'Tash was cracking codes much harder than this one by the age of seven' Clint explained, watching his partner work.

Within a couple of minutes and a couple of taps, beeps, a number combination and a click, Natasha kicked the iron door open, and cautiously stepped inside, quickly followed by the rest of the team.

It was like stepping back in time, Natasha though as she looked around the room, shining the torch up and down, taking in all the Russian writing, equipment and furnishings. Suddenly the room was filled with light, causing her the whirl around and find Tony standing by the lights switch back by the entrance.

'Tash you should see this' Clint remarked, placing his hands on her shoulders and turning his partner back around to face into the bunker.

'Bozhe moi' Natasha whispered, gazing around the bunker. In the light she could see that pinned to the walls were pictures of her on various missions with the Avengers and some when she was doing something undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D.

'A bit of a stalker it seems' Bruce remarked

Natasha just nodded taking it all in. It was not often, as an undercover assassin, that you saw your face plastered over so many surfaces.

'Shall we see what this contains?' Tony asked, walking over towards the computer on the desk and asking JARVIS start downloading all the files. As JARVIS began to set to work on the computer's hard drive it suddenly sprang to life

'Unknown access detected. Who's there?' came this voice in Robotic Russian

Natasha hastily pulled Tony back and stood in front of the computer

'Natalia Shostakova' she answered, hoping that the computer would recognise the surname

'The master's _zhena?'_

'Yes'

'Access granted'

'Can you pull up all files relating to the Black Widow?' Natasha asked the computer in Russian. She knew that Tony and JARVIS were still busy downloading all the files from the computer, but she wanted the information quickly and she hoped that the computer would cooperate.

'Showing files relating to the Black Widow' the computer announced as files began to appear on the screen.

Natasha quickly scanned through the documents, flicking past files about the program, the original girls and the team behind them. She also found one granting her the title of Black Widow and another condemning her when she deflected. She past one detailing the bombing of the program which had been illegally run by Yusupov after it was meant to be closed down and then Natasha finally found the one she had been looking for, the one with the KGB issuing an order to kill her.

'I'm surprised it's so recent' Clint remarked, reading the Russian over his partner's shoulder 'the date, that's just after-'

'After the last time I was in Moscow, just after Irina had come to us and I was sent to investigate the mysterious Ghost program she had talked about.'

'You were sent to check that it was not another red room' Clint said, remembering the mission

'And I ended up assassinating the main director of the Ghost program' Natasha finished

'Well it was on Fury's orders and the man, besides from having an appalling dress sense, also had links to several known terrorist organisations'

'So it looks like we're going to Moscow after all' Bruce remarked having listened into Natasha and Clint's conversation.

'You guys don't have to come' Natasha said

'Natasha we're a team and we're going' Steve stated as Clint slipped and arm around Natasha.

'Download complete' Tony announced, moving away from the computer 'I'm sure Fury would like to see some of these files.

'Guys do you hear that?' Clint asked suddenly

The room fell quiet and the team could hear a faint beeping noise coming from behind the desk. Suddenly the lights switched off and the team could now see a red flashing light.

'RUN!' Steve shouted as the computer exploded

The team ran as fast as they could back up the passageway the explosion following along behind them. Natasha could feel the fire licking at her heels and warming her back. Coughing and spluttering she ran up out of the passageway through the gas filled house and she reached out to grab hold of Clint's hand as they stumbled out of the front door. The fire coming out of the passageway mixed with the gas, igniting it and both she and Clint were thrown forward onto the road outside by the force of the explosion.

As the fire died down Clint rolled over to face Natasha who was lying face down on the tarmac beside him and laughed. 'Why is it when you and me in Berlin it always ends in an explosion?' he asked as the rest of the team hurried over the make sure that the two assassins were alright.

* * *

**Ok, so this chapter was awful and I'm really not happy with it, but I wanted to post something, otherwise who knows when you would get this chapter. No Lena in this chapter but I promise she'll be in the next one.**

**A huge thank you to everyone who is reading this story and especially to the lovely people who have reviewed, it means a lot to me.  
**

**:)  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi! Yes I am still alive and I'm so so sorry for not updating sooner, but after the last update I was extremely busy and had no time to write, but now I'm on holiday and I'm determined to get more of this story written. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and please let me know what you make of this one.**

**~Cherry :)**

* * *

'Tony, Tony, is that you?' Pepper Stark asked as she answered her phone, which had been vibrating in her back pocket. After the incident where she had not picked up her phone during the Avenger's first battle in New York, Pepper made sure she always had a phone on her, never leaving it anywhere so she never missed one of Tony's calls.

_'Hey Pep' _

'Are you ok?' the strawberry blonde asked anxiously, wondering why he had called, since he did not normally call when he was on a mission

_'Yes I'm fine'_

_'_Tony' Pepper stated, knowing that her husband was hiding something from her

'_Well, I might have been caught in a little explosion and I wasn't wearing my suit so I'm now slightly singed, but I'm fine, really Pep, it's nothing to worry about'_

'Don't you have your suit with you?'

_'Yes, but we were only expecting to meet Natasha, not be caught in an exploding soviet underground lair'_

'So you've found Natasha?'

_'Yeah, somehow out off the various cafes in Berlin Clint knew exactly the one she would be at'_

_'_So are you now heading home?' Pepper asked, hating being parted from her husband

_'I'm really sorry Pep, but there's been a change of plans, we're now heading to Moscow'_

'Moscow?'

'_Natasha's got some unfinished business in Moscow and we just can't let her go in there by herself' Tony explained_

_'_It's ok, just don't get into too much trouble and promise me you'll stay safe' Pepper replied with a sigh, she wanted to tell him to come home, but she knew how important the members of the team to him and she knew how precarious it would be getting Natasha into Moscow.

_'I promise, I love you'_

'Aunty Pepper, is that Uncle Tony?' came a small voice

Pepper looked around to see the brown haired Sofia Romanoff-Barton peeing around the door into her office, clearly having been eavesdropping on the adult's conversation 'Yes Sofia' Pepper replied before handing over her phone to the seven year old's outstretched hand

'Hey Uncle Tony' she said of down the phone 'Daddy there?'

_'Yeah'_

'And Mommy?' Sofia asked, missing her red haired mother

_'Yeah we managed to find her'_

'Can I speak to them?' Sofia asked

_'Of course you can sweetheart' Tony answered before looking down the plane to get one of the two assassin's attention. 'Hey Legolas' he called out loudly 'a little birdy here wants to talk to you' and with that Tony tossed his phone towards Clint._

'_Hello'_

_'_Daddy!' Sofia exclaimed upon hearing her father's voice

_'Sofia sweetheart'_

'Are you coming home soon? I miss you' Sofia stated

_'I'm sorry sweetie but I'm going to be on this mission for a couple more days, but I'll try and come home as soon as possible'_

'But I though your mission was to find Mommy and Uncle Tony said you had' Sofia stated, confused as to why her Daddy was not coming home

'_I wish it was that simple Soneshka, but Mommy, Daddy and the rest of the team need to go to Moscow._

'Moscow, that's in Russia where Mommy's from'

_'Yes and your mommy needs to talk to some people there' Clint explained_

'Can I speak to her?' Sofia asked

_'Yeah, just give me a moment' Clint replied, before putting Tony's mobile down and reaching over to gently wake up his partner, who was silently dozing whilst using his shoulder as a pillow. 'It's Sofia' he stated upon seeing her confused face before handing Natasha the phone. He then stood up and walked towards the front of the plane to find out how find out how close they were to arriving in Moscow_

_'Soneshka?'_

'Mommy! Are you ok, you sound funny?'

_'I'm fine __moy dorogo, just tired'_

Sofia was interrupted from asking her mother another question, by the sound of her older sister entering the room.

'Hey Sofia, who are you talking to? Lena asked

'Mommy' Sofia replied

'Can I speak to her? Aunt Pepper sent me to tell you that it's nearly bedtime'

'Fine' Sofia said and after saying goodbye to Natasha she handed over the phone to her older sister.

'Hi' Lena said hesitantly down the phone, wondering if her Dad had talked to her Mom about the horrible things she had said to him before he left on the mission.

_'Lenochka, is that you?'_

'Hi Mom'

_'Lena, how are you?' Natasha asked anxiously, wondering how her eldest daughter was coping with all the recent discoveries_

'I'm fine Mom' Lena replied, not really wanting to talk about it

'_Sweetie, it must have been a huge shock for you, I know it was for me' Natasha pressed, knowing her daughter was far from fine'_

'I just don't know what to think' Lena admitted quietly, gripping the phone tightly 'but it doesn't really matter because he's dead'

_'Elena it does matter, that man was your fath-'_

'Mom, can we just wait to have this conversation when you get back?' Lena asked interrupting her mother. 'How are you?' she asked, trying to change the topic

_'I'm ok' Natasha replied, dropping the subject 'just a little bit tired from my travels across Europe, but I've managed to get some sleep on the plane'_

'Plane – does this mean your coming home?'

_'I'm afraid I'm travelling in the opposite direction Lenochka. It seems as if I have some unfinished business in Moscow'_

'Moscow!' Lena exclaimed 'Mom, are you ok about going back there?'

'I have to go back there sweetheart, I have to find out who Alexei was warning me about'

'Is there anything I could do?' Lena asked

_'Actually, there is something you could do' Natasha replied, thinking about their upcoming mission in Moscow 'can you ask Irina to contact me?'_

'Sure' Lena stated, slightly disappointed there was nothing her mother wanted her to do personally 'how come?'

_'Well she was the last person to come into contact with the KGB, so it would be nice to get some information out of her' Natasha explained. _

'Hey Mom, is Daddy there, can I speak to him?' Lena asked, plucking up the courage to talk to her father and apologise.

'He's currently up the front talking to Steve, but I can get him for you, if you want?

'No it's fine; I'd hate to interrupt his conversation' Lena replied 'can you just tell him that I didn't mean it and I love him?'

_'Of course __moy dorogo' Natasha replied, wondering what had gone on between her husband and her daughter._

'I love you Mom, just come home safe' Lena said and with one last goodbye to her mother, she ended the call. 'Hey JARVIS can you contact Agent Luzin for me?' she asked the resident A.I as she made her way out of Pepper's office and back towards her own quarters. 'I think she's now out of medical'

'Right away Miss Elena' JARVIS replied as Lena looked in on her younger sister, making sure she was asleep before heading into her room and sitting down on the bed. She just hoped her parents and the rest of the team knew what they were down and they would be able to get out of Russia unscathed.

* * *

'So how long until we arrive?' Natasha asked, as she walked down the plane, passing a snoring Bruce Banner before coming to a stop outside the cockpit in which Steve was flying the plane and where Tony and Clint were talking. She handed the phone back to the billionaire before slipping in next to her partner.

'We've got about another hour to go' Steve replied from the pilot's chair. 'Do you know anywhere we can land inconspicuously?' he asked

'There's a little landing strip I know near the outskirts of Moscow' Natasha replied 'but it's notoriously difficult to land in, so give me a shout when we're almost there and I'll take over'

'Sure' Steve said, knowing that it was just best to agree with the Back Widow.

'Hey could I borrow Clint for a sec?' she asked Tony, whilst looking at her partner, trying to convey how urgently she needed to speak to him.

'Yeah sure' Tony replied, wondering why the two assassins needed to talk so urgently

'What is it Tash?' Clint asked, once they had setting in the seats right at the back of the plane, with no chance of being overheard by the rest of the Avengers.

'I've just got off the phone with Lena' the redhead replied

'And what did she say?' Clint pressed, though already anticipating where this conversation was going

'Well to start with, she called you Daddy, which she stopped doing when she started middle school, about the same time I stopped being _Mumiya _and then she told me to tell you that she didn't mean it and she loved you' Natasha paused trying to gage her partner's reaction. 'Now would you mind telling me what on earth happened between you and my daughter?'

Clint sighed before being to being to explain the things he and Lena had said to each other before he went to find Natasha. 'She had already snuck aboard the quinjet when we went to find Alexei's body and now she was demanding to come on the mission with us' Clint started. 'I told her _no, _knowing how you would flip if you discovered her with us.

'I would have been angry' Natasha admitted 'it would be too dangerous and she's still a little girl'

'Well that's what I told her' Clint said, before continuing with his story. 'She insisted that she could help, but I told her that she would just be a hindrance. Then she told me that I was not her father and that I couldn't tell her what to do'

'No! What did you do?' Natasha asked, out of all things that could have happened, she had not expected that.

'I told her that it might be the case by it the absence of her mother I was still her legal guardian and therefore responsible for her welfare' Clint replied. 'After that we left on the mission and I haven't talked to her since. I would rather Lena hated me, but be safe, than have her love and putting her in danger'

'You did the right thing Clint' Natasha said, wrapping her arms around her clearly upset partner (though he was outwardly disguising it well) 'and by the sounds of the conversation I've just had with Lena, she's sorry and does love you'

'I know, but it did hurt' Clint whispered

'Never doubt her love Clint' Natasha stated firmly resting her head on her partner's shoulder 'Lena loves you so much'

'Natasha we're almost there!' Steve shouted down the plane, cutting through the tender moment the two assassins where having.

With a final reassuring squeeze of the archer's hand, Natasha stood up, sorted out her cat suit, before heading up the plane, ready to land the plane in the country that was once her home. This mission was going to be interesting.


End file.
